Elm Grove, WI

Elm Grove grew up on a road. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee dates the first permanent homestead to 1836 and the first post office to 1842. In 1848, crews began laying more than 650,000 white oak timbers and planks for the 58-mile Watertown Plank Road from Milwaukee to Watertown, with toll gates along the way. That road is still the village's main street. Railroad tracks followed in the 1850s and a new depot in 1864, and with them came a general store, an inn and tavern, and a mill. According to local legend, the trees gave the place its name.

The first 20 residential lots were platted in 1869. Home building picked up in the 1920s and 1930s with the automobile, and the big suburban building wave came after World War II. The village incorporated in 1955 from about 3.25 square miles of the Town of Brookfield, a year after the City of Brookfield. The population was just under 5,000 in 1960. The encyclopedia also notes that village zoning requires houses on large lots, which is a large part of why Elm Grove looks the way it does.

Elm Grove sits at the eastern edge of Waukesha County. It borders Wauwatosa to the east and the City of Brookfield on every other side, per the encyclopedia. Wikipedia puts it at 3.29 square miles, 3.27 of them land, bounded roughly by Bluemound Road, Pilgrim Parkway, North Avenue and 124th Street, with Watertown Plank Road as the primary retail street.

The Wisconsin DOR's 2025 report lists the January 2025 population at 6,498 and the total full value at $1,919,757,200. The village runs on a seven-member volunteer board elected to two-year terms. Its community page describes sloping hills and forested properties 15 minutes west of Milwaukee, and its wildlife page calls the village a residential community "characterized by large lots, mature tree stock, well managed landscapes and natural water sources."

The housing is mostly owner-occupied single-family. The 2020-2024 ACS counts 2,446 housing units, 1,864 of them single-family detached, about 76%. Of 2,269 occupied homes, 2,008 are owner-occupied, about 88%. The rest are condominiums and apartments, mostly near downtown and on the former campus redevelopment on Watertown Plank Road.

The ACS counts 101 homes as seasonal or occasional use, which in a non-resort village usually means second residences or homes between owners. That is a small share, but worth knowing if you see an empty house on a showing.

One more local detail. The village's wildlife management page calls Elm Grove a "Bird Sanctuary" village and describes years of debate over white-tailed deer and coyotes, which thrive on its large wooded lots. For a buyer, that translates into practical questions: deer browsing on landscaping, fencing rules, and what the village allows. Ask before you plant or fence.

Its $1 million-plus market is deeper than the City of Brookfield's, and the public record shows sales up to $5.96 million.

At about $11.04 per $1,000, Elm Grove's 2025 rate is above the City of Brookfield's and well above the Lake Country lake villages, though still far below Lake County, Illinois. Downtown will see construction as the creek work proceeds.

Elm Grove is small enough that buyers tend to think of it as one place, but price varies a lot from street to street. I'm only naming areas a public source names; check the subdivision on the plat before you rely on a boundary.

Indian Hills Estates is the name that comes up in the public record at the top. BizTimes placed the $5.96 million Woodlawn Circle sale of January 2022 in Indian Hills Estates, and placed a September 2019 sale on Hillside Road, $1,785,000 for a 2014 house on 1.1 acres, in the same subdivision, per BizTimes. These are newer or rebuilt houses on lots of about an acre.

Downtown, around Watertown Plank Road and Juneau Boulevard, is the walkable part of the village, with the library, village hall, Sunset Playhouse and the shops. Housing near it includes older single-family homes and most of the village's condominiums.

The former campus at 13105 Watertown Plank Road is the newest pocket. The village's project page shows two single-family plats, Red Barn and Green Meadow, approved on August 22, 2023. BizTimes reported in May 2024 that Miller Marriott Construction bought the 10-acre single-family portion for $4.1 million to build 21 homes, and had accepted offers on 12 lots. Next to them is Caroline Heights, a 237-unit apartment community.

Elm Grove is not a lake market. There is no lake in the village, only Underwood Creek and some ponds. What it has is a deeper $1 million-plus market, relative to its size, than the City of Brookfield next door, on wooded lots of about an acre, with a run of period estates, Tudors among them, alongside newer stone houses.

Start with the Census. The 2020-2024 ACS counts 191 owner-occupied homes valued at $1 million or more, about 9.5% of the village's 2,008 owner homes: 95 at $1 million to $1.5 million, 77 at $1.5 million to $2 million and 19 at $2 million or more. Next door in the much larger City of Brookfield, the share at $1 million or more is about 2.4%.

Zillow agrees. Its top-tier index for the 53122 ZIP code was $1,005,102 in August 2026, up 6.5% in a year, per Zillow's public data.

The public sales tell you where the ceiling is. The highest I found is the January 2022 sale of a 2012 stone house on Woodlawn Circle in Indian Hills Estates for $5.96 million, with about 8,842 square feet, five bedrooms, seven full and two half baths, assessed at about $2.18 million at the time, per BizTimes. In March 2021, a 10,396-square-foot house modeled on 13th-century Gothic design, with stone, hand-carved limestone and slate, on 1 acre, sold for $2.19 million, per BizTimes. In June 2024 the Milwaukee Business Journal reported the sale of a Tudor-style Elm Grove house for $2.9 million.

The gap between assessed value and price is the pattern to watch. The 2022 Woodlawn Circle house sold for about 2.7 times its assessment, and the 2019 Hillside Road house for about 1.3 times its roughly $1.4 million assessment. On a large Elm Grove parcel, the assessment often lags the market by a wide margin, so a buyer should not read the tax roll as a price guide.

My honest summary: in Elm Grove, $1 million to $2 million is a real, regularly traded market of updated older homes and newer builds on large lots. $2 million to $3 million is a smaller market of period estates and custom houses. Above $3 million, the public record shows only a handful of sales, and the $5.96 million Woodlawn Circle sale is the high mark I found. I won't give you a median for that top tier, because the public data does not support one.

Zillow's typical home value for Elm Grove was $696,876 in August 2026, up 6.3% from a year earlier, per Zillow's public data. The 53122 ZIP code was essentially the same, $697,064. A Stacker ranking built on Zillow's data (September 2026) placed Elm Grove sixth of 70 Milwaukee-area places by typical value, behind Oconomowoc Lake, River Hills and Summit, among others.

The 2020-2024 ACS puts the median value of owner-occupied homes at $510,400, give or take about $53,600, and the median gross rent at $1,900. The ACS lags the market by a few years, which is why it sits below Zillow's figure.

The housing stock is mid-century at heart. The ACS counts 648 homes built in the 1950s, 431 in the 1960s and 446 in the 1970s, about 62% of the village between them by my arithmetic. Another 295 date to 1939 or earlier and 201 to the 1940s. Only 98 have been built since 2010. Most Elm Grove listings are older houses, and much of the newer construction at the top end is a teardown or a major rebuild on an existing lot.

For context on Zillow's August 2026 figures: Elm Grove $696,876, Pewaukee $570,804, the City of Brookfield $528,294, New Berlin $455,414, Menomonee Falls $439,642 and Wauwatosa $427,594. For a Lake County, Illinois comparison, Vernon Hills was $459,113 and Lake Forest $1,248,040 on the same index.

Renting is a small market here. Zillow's rent index for 53122 was about $3,420 in August 2026, but with only a few hundred rentals in the village, that figure moves with a handful of leases. The new Caroline Heights apartments listed one-bedrooms from $1,855 and three-bedrooms up to $4,535 when they opened in early 2025, per BizTimes.

I'm not using MLS statistics on this page. Wisconsin sold data comes through a different MLS than the Illinois one I work in, and in a village this size a monthly median moves with one sale.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the tax bill is the first thing people compare. The DOR's 2025 report shows $23,531,230 in total property tax across Elm Grove for taxes levied in 2025 and collected in 2026. That is a gross rate of about $12.26 per $1,000 of full value and an effective rate of about $11.04 after the state school levy credit. The village assesses at 92% of full value.

The village's own tax rate page breaks out its piece. The village tax rate for the December 2025 bill is $4.899 per $1,000 of assessed value, from a total levy of $8,609,593 on total assessed value of $1,757,403,400. That levy includes the $7,997,081 operating levy, up 3.46%, plus $612,512 allocated to the tax increment district. It covers a $300,000 capital charge from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and $550,000 for a transportation fund for roads, bridges and pathways. The net Elmbrook school rate on 2025 bills was $5.511 per $1,000 of assessed value, up 4.61% from $5.268. County and technical college taxes make up the rest.

Every residential bill also carries user fees for sewer, stormwater and garbage. For 2026 they total $1,223.33, up $101.94, per the same page.

Here is a worked example. A $1,500,000 Elm Grove home at the 2025 effective rate of $11.04 per $1,000 would carry about $16,560 a year, plus the $1,223.33 in fees. A $3,000,000 estate would carry about $33,120. For comparison, Ownwell's data shows a median effective rate of 1.87% in Lake Forest, Illinois, which on the same $3,000,000 would be about $56,100.

Two Wisconsin credits come off the bill afterward. The lottery and gaming credit applies only to a Wisconsin resident's primary residence and, for 2025-26, is figured on up to $27,000 of value, per the DOR's November 2025 notice. Since 2021, Waukesha County collects Elm Grove's tax payments, per the village's property tax page.

Next to its neighbors on the same DOR report, Elm Grove's effective rate of about $11.04 compares with about $10.60 in the City of Brookfield and about $9.00 in the Town of Brookfield. On a $1,500,000 house, that is roughly $16,560 in Elm Grove, $15,900 in the City and $13,500 in the Town, before user fees, by my arithmetic.

When you sell, Wisconsin charges a real estate transfer fee of $3 per $1,000 of value, or $9,000 on a $3,000,000 sale.

This is general information, not tax advice. Your bill depends on the parcel, the assessment and the credits you qualify for.

This is the practical fact most Illinois buyers miss about Elm Grove: there is no village water utility. The village's municipal water study page says residents voted on April 7, 2009 to allow one, and that in early 2010 the village found a municipal water system, as proposed for part of the village, was not feasible at that time.

So where does the water come from? The village's private utility providers page lists three private water systems, Marian Heights Water, Squires Grove Water Trust and Meadows of the Grove Water Trust, which serve particular developments. The redevelopment of the former campus on Watertown Plank Road brought in water from Wauwatosa: BizTimes reported a mile of new water main connected to Wauwatosa's supply for Caroline Heights, and the village posts a water agreement with the City of Wauwatosa. A 2013 project ran a main down Elm Grove Road to serve one building on Wall Street. Outside those, a single-family house in Elm Grove is most likely on its own private well, and I'd plan on that until the listing says otherwise.

For a buyer, that means a well inspection and a water test with every offer. Waukesha County's environmental health office handles well and septic evaluations for sales. Ask the seller for past water tests and any treatment equipment records.

Sewer is a different story. The village runs its own sanitary sewer system, and the sanitary sewer page shows it feeds the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, which is why MMSD's capital charge shows up in the village levy. The village posts notices of sanitary sewer overflows from May 2020 and September 2022 and advice on basement backups, so ask about a backflow valve and the house's sewer lateral.

Underwood Creek runs through downtown Elm Grove, and its history explains a big village project. The village's Underwood Creek page says the watershed drains 18 square miles through 12 miles of stream in Brookfield, Elm Grove and Wauwatosa. In the 1960s, the downtown stretch was channelized and covered by a parking lot, running under the Park and Shop lot and the Sendik's building before it reappears.

The village started an Underwood Creek flood management project in 2003 to reduce downtown flooding in big storms. It says the work was tested in a heavy rainstorm in June 2008 and several times since, with no overland flooding of downtown buildings. But the 1960s enclosure was never permitted, and engineering found it too small for high flows. The DNR required the village to pursue removing it as a condition of the rest of the project. A village trustee told TMJ4 in November 2024 that the parking lot over the creek "will collapse at some point."

The answer is daylighting: opening the creek and rebuilding it as a natural channel with floodwater storage. The referendum asked voters to approve the project at a cost not to exceed $8.5 million, funded by the downtown tax increment district, existing stormwater fees and grants. Voters approved it on November 5, 2024, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The village lists grants of $175,000 for engineering, $250,000 for property acquisition and $300,000 for restoration so far, and says the estimate includes a $650,000 construction contingency and rose about $2 million on soil contamination concerns.

For a buyer, the downtown work is a construction issue near Watertown Plank Road and, once finished, a new public green space along the creek. For any house near the creek, check the FEMA flood map, ask for a lender's flood determination early, and ask the seller about water in the basement.

All of Elm Grove is in the School District of Elmbrook, per the DOR's 2025 apportionment. Two Elmbrook schools sit in the village: Tonawanda Elementary and Pilgrim Park Middle School. Wikipedia says village addresses are assigned to Tonawanda or Dixon for elementary school, Pilgrim Park for middle school, and Brookfield East or Brookfield Central for high school. Assignment is by address, so confirm with the district before you write an offer.

The school tax is part of the bill above: Elmbrook's 2025-26 DPI mill rate is $6.26 per $1,000 of equalized value, per the DPI rate table, which the village translates to $5.511 per $1,000 of assessed value on its bills.

Downtown Elm Grove centers on Watertown Plank Road near Juneau Boulevard: village hall and the library at 13600 Juneau Boulevard, a Sendik's grocery, the Park and Shop center, restaurants and small shops. It is the one part of the village where you can run errands on foot.

Sunset Playhouse is the anchor. Its about page says the nonprofit community theater incorporated in 1954, launched a building fund drive across the Milwaukee area, and opened its building in March 1960. It calls Sunset the first theater in Wisconsin built entirely by a community theater group. It produces eight main-stage shows a year, runs an After Sunset series in the Marla Eichmann Studio Theater, hosts a six-concert Musical MainStage series and a six-show cabaret series, and runs a School for the Arts. The page credits 39,850 volunteers with 1,502,050 hours of service. The theater is at 800 Elm Grove Road. In July 2026, TMJ4 covered its production of Legally Blonde.

Downtown is also the subject of current planning. In August 2026 the village posted a progress update on an Integrated Comprehensive and Downtown Master Plan, a planning process of a year or more covering land use, transportation, housing and economic development, with a closer look at downtown character, walkability and revitalization. A community survey and draft concepts are still to come. If you're buying near downtown, follow it; it will shape what gets built on Watertown Plank Road over the next decade.

Village Park is the village's main park, and it is well equipped for its size. The park page lists two ball diamonds, nine tennis courts, six pickleball courts, two sand volleyball courts, a playground, a basketball court, a heated swimming pool and splash pad, a sledding hill, a gazebo picnic area and a covered pavilion. The park is open from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Residents reserve picnic areas from the first working day in January, non-residents from May. The pavilion, for up to 150 people, rents for $175 to residents and $350 to non-residents, plus tax, and the pool and splash pad can be booked for private parties on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings.

The village is building out walking paths. Its project list includes the Juneau pathway (2016), the Watertown Plank Road pathway extension, a 2025 future pathways plan, and a Highland Drive pathway from Gebhardt Road to Watertown Plank Road, with construction set to start on June 8, 2026, per the village's community projects page and news posts.

The Elm Grove Public Library sits next to village hall on Juneau Boulevard. For emergency care, the village's EMS page says its ambulance service, created in 1975 and staffed by police EMTs and volunteer paramedics, nurses and EMTs, routinely transports to area hospitals including Elmbrook and Froedtert.

The biggest change in Elm Grove in decades is the redevelopment of the former campus at 13105 Watertown Plank Road. The village's project page traces it from a January 2021 rezoning request by Mandel Group, through a March 2022 approval of a development agreement and a new Tax Incremental District No. 3, to the August 22, 2023 approval of the Red Barn and Green Meadow single-family plats.

BizTimes reported in February 2025 that Caroline Heights, at 13125 Watertown Plank Road, had opened its first 68-unit building, with 35 more units in two converted historic buildings due by the end of that February, toward 237 in all. One-bedrooms started at $1,855 a month and three-bedrooms ran up to $4,535. The 21 single-family homes on the campus are being built by Miller Marriott Construction.

Downtown, the Underwood Creek daylighting project and the new master plan are the two things to watch, both covered above. The village's project list also shows the 2026 paving program, and in August 2026 the village announced a Metronet and T-Mobile fiber network expansion.

For a buyer, the campus is the only place in Elm Grove adding new single-family lots at any scale, and it adds a large rental community next to them. The rest of the village changes one teardown at a time.

Elm Grove sits right on the Milwaukee County line. These are free-flow estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), computed in October 2026 from the center of the village. Real trips vary with traffic and season.

From Vernon Hills, Elm Grove is about 69 miles and roughly 1 hour 30 minutes. Lake Forest is about 65 miles and 1 hour 25 minutes. The Loop is about 95 miles and 2 hours, and O'Hare about 92 miles and 2 hours 10 minutes. Going east, Wauwatosa is about 4 miles and 11 minutes, downtown Milwaukee about 11 miles and 21 minutes, and Milwaukee Mitchell Airport about 16 miles and 29 minutes. Madison is about 70 miles and 1 hour 25 minutes west.

From Lake County, take I-94 north to Milwaukee, then west on I-94 and north into the village from Bluemound Road. For rail, Amtrak's Hiawatha runs between Milwaukee and Chicago Union Station; the Milwaukee Intermodal Station is about 10 miles and 19 minutes from Elm Grove by the same routing.

The trade-off for an Illinois buyer is the same as for the rest of this area: it is a Milwaukee suburb, not a Chicago one. If your work is in downtown Milwaukee or Wauwatosa, few large-lot villages are closer.

The Elm Grove Police Department serves the village, and its officers also staff the village's EMS as EMTs. I don't characterize the safety of any area. Anyone who wants the data can contact the Elm Grove Police Department or look it up on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.